Craigslist Spoils

[austinado16]

Hi,
My name is Todd and I have a Craigslist addiction.

(This is the part where you all give me a warm welcome.....)

It's been quite a week on CL, and I just had to share my latest haul.

But before I get to that, I scored a $300+ "Endless Summer" patio heater for free earlier in the week. So I was pretty happy about that.

Then this morning, there I was, minding my own beezwax when I trip over an ad for a Wolf BBQ for $100. My In-Laws own a big Wolf range, so I'm familiar with the brand and the quality, but had no idea they built outdoor grills. A quick google search and I found this model is 500lbs, and runs about $7,600 plus tax.

It came with a cover that they had just washed, all the tools, and the rotisserie parts, but not the rotisserie motor, which had failed a few years ago. Oh, and the original owner's manual.

6 burners in the BBQ area with cast iron grill surfaces, and flavorizer bars below that, like a Weber. An infrared burner on the back wall with a removeable stainless cover, and some sort of a burner for just using the rotisserie. Plus, on the right side, to staggered hight burners for pots/pans, and a flip up work table, also stainless. The side burners have heavy cast iron grills.

[this post was last edited: 2/27/2011-19:20]

 

[rp2813]

Welcome Todd!  Mind you, if you're looking for help, you've come to the worst possible place.

 

What an awesome score on that Wolf!  I think the lesson to be learned here is that I need to cruise CL more often and in more categories!

 

We have an Endless Summer patio heater and although it gets lets use than we thought it would and can go for very long periods between operations, it fires up readily whenever we need it.

 

[austinado16]

The endless summer heater appears to have a fault in how the pilot flame is shrouded. So if yours gets to the point where it will no longer stay lit because the thermocouple is cooling off and letting go of the magnetic valve in the gas valve assembly, the shroud has probably failed.

You can remove that long front panel to access the pilot light assembly and that stainless shroud. The shroud is to pieces, crimped together. When it gets hot enough (or goes through X number if heating/cooling cycles) the crimping fails and the 2 pieces pop apart. This cause the pilot flame to simply shoot straight up, rather than being seperated into a sideways jet that touches the thermocouple and vertical jet that can light the main burner. Simply remove the pilot assembly and recrimp the 1 pieces back together, doing a better job with your crimping. It'll save you about $50 in replacement parts and shipping.

 

[luxflairguy]

Todd, Todd, Todd! I'm picking that up for my backyard when I come to California in May. Make sure it's cleaned up and has all the knobs! LOL!!
Great score. I got a new in box Farberware electronic convection oven yesterday for $35.00. Bought new in S.F. for $300.00 in December 1982. Works perfectly. Craigslist is more addictave than Ebay!

 

[austinado16]

First I have to figure out how to unload it!!

Although.....gravity should make it easier than the loading process.

BTW, all the knobs are present. I just removed 2 so my tie-down strap didn't break them.

I'll get it polished up for you, and get the grills seasoned nicely.

Mmm....what to cook on it first. I know, 50 chicken breasts.....or 45 new york steaks....or 75 bacon wrapped fillets. Decisions, decisions.

BTW, the big camp trailer on the right.....A CL score from last Sunday, for $1,000. It's worth right at 3 large.[this post was last edited: 2/27/2011-21:11]

 

[polkanut]

Todd,

I like my London Broil done to a very nice medium rare, with au jus please!  And don't forget the baked potatoes, and green beans to go with it.

 

[rp2813]

Thanks for the pilot tip Todd.

 

What's up with the place next door?  It looks . . . er . . . untouched, and therefore, interesting.

 

[austinado16]

LOL........the place next door

Very observant!!

It's a kit house from 1947/48. It may be one of those kit homes that were so popular back east....the famous ones? I can never remember the name.

The original owners lived in it their entire lives, including raising a son and daughter, whom they named after themselves. They purchased that lot, and the lot that we moved our house onto, just after WWII, from the lady on the corner.

It's been vacant now for a few years and the surving family members don't want to sell it, so here it sits.

 

[rp2813]

Maybe it requires some work the heirs don't want to do, or they're just not interested in rental income.  Surely there's no mortgage, and only Prop 13 taxes -- I'm betting less than $500 -- in addition to tiny utility bills, if any, and insurance.   It looks like the yard is being maintained.

 

[austinado16]

Got a chance take the burner area apart today to asses the condition of things. 2 of the rotary ignitors (the black knobs on the front panel are rotated clockwise in order to trigger the ignitors and light the burner tubes to the left and right of the black knob) are bad. 5 of the ignitors are bad. 3 of the ignitor grounding shields are rusted away.

I called Wolf and got the serial # transfered over to my ownership and they gave me the # of "West Coast Parts" in Hayward, CA who are a parts supplier for Wolf to the retail public.

West Coast Parts sent me a pdf of the parts page, with part numbers and I put together an order. I also discovered the jet orifaces are removeable, and the parts diagram gives the # info for the LP jets....$3ea. So I ordered LP jets for all 9 locations.

Discovered the grill was also missing a stainless shroud over the pilot flame area for the rotisserie burner, and Wolf will supply that for free for some reason.

I have to say, my initial impression of the Wolf BBQ Grill is not that favorable.
-The ignitors, with their plastic jacketed wire, are mounted at the near end of the actual burner tube. The wire has a woven fiberglass sleeve slipped over it in an attempt to keep it from being melted by the heat. So.....sure enough, the heat melts the wire jacket, and burns up the exposed wire stranded core, until it falls out the bottom of the cheesey little porcelain ignitor tip. The ignitor wire "assembly" is $18.10ea, and there 6. For cryin' out loud, that's $108.60, plus tax and shipping for stupid ignitor wires!!

-Similar problem, there is a metal grounding shield, mounted in the same location, burns up, and is $5.28ea, times 6. Another $31.68, plus tax and shipping.

-Continuing, the ignitor and ground shield are mounted to a stainless platform. Although mine aren't burned up yet, same potential scenario....and they are $25.48, times 6, so that's potentially $152+ when those fail.

-As if this isn't enough, the "rotary ignitor" that fires the ignitor, is plastic, not shielded from the heat of the burner area, and so they melt....as mine are.....and stop working. $22.12ea and there are 3....so $66.36 if all 3 are needed. (I need 2)

-So $357, plus tax and shipping to rebuild the ignition system on this stupid thing.

-Next on my complaint list, $7,599 for this grill and it does not come with a temperature gauge in the hood. How do you cook, especially grilling meat to a specific level of done-ness, when you have no idea what the temp is inside the grill?

Meanwhile, my Weber grill, with an original price take of maybe $300 15 years ago, uses a $12 ignitor assembly that is mounted in the body of the grill, comes with the shroud, and the ignitor button, and needs no grounding shroud. And it's available all day long at all hardware stores. BTW, all Weber gas grills come with a temp gauge in the hood......doh!

It's going to be interesting to see how this thing cooks. I'm waaaay spoiled by the design and cooking quality of Weber gas grills. IMO, no other grill even comes close, especially when it comes to not setting fire to the food.

 

[polkanut]

Sounds like Wolf grills are "over-engineered".  Simpler is usually better, and more durable.

 

[austinado16]

Yeah, after getting up close and personal, I'm not feeling the love.

Couple other things I'm not liking (so far):

-On the Webers, there's a cross-over tube between all the burners. So one burner is lit by the ignitor, and the other burners auto light, just by turning on their gas valves...because the cross-over tube brings the flame from the first burner, to which ever burner you want lit.

Kinda blows my mind that Wolf chose to have an ignitor for every single burner.

-The Webers have a matrix of "favorizer bars" which are long triangular shaped pieces of flat steel that cover the burners, and then perpendicular, is another row of flavorizer bars. There's no way for drippings to get to the burner flame, and this nearly eliminates flare-ups. The Webers also have a deep (upside-down pyramid shape) grease pan which drains into a centered external drip pan. This steep drip area keeps the falling grease away from the burners...again, helping prevent grease fires.

Conversely, the Wolf has a flat bottom, just a couple inches away from the burners. It's got one flavorizer bar over each of the 6 burners, and that's it. I could be wrong, but this design sure looks like it has the potential to keep the grease close to the burners and really cause flare-ups.

I guess I'll find out soon enough.

 

[retropia]

We like our old Weber grill, too.  It's a starter model, only 2-burners, and just one row of flavorizer bars.  I did have one grease fire with it.  It was after we'd grilled a batch of rib-eyes, and I turned it on high for 10 minutes to burn off the grease.  There was a little more grease than I'd anticipated.  I blamed the fire on the rib-eyes, which while delicious, are particularly fatty. It didn't last long and didn't hurt the grill, other than some of the paint flaked off on the inside of the cover.

 

The only thing I've done with it is replace the cast-iron grates and steel flavorizer bars with stainless steel versions.  The push-button igniter sometimes sticks a little.  We keep it covered and parked under the eaves when not in use, so it gets some protection from the elements.

 

 

[austinado16]

My Weber is similar to yours, but 3 burner. I like the 3 burner models because you can turn off that center burner and cook indirect. Same as you, I replaced the original porcelain-enameled flavorizer bars with the stainless versions, and scored a new set of cast iron grills locally on CL for cheap. The flavorizer bars are from a guy on ebay who makes them, and they are thicker and last longer than the OE Weber versions.

I can get mine to flare up too, if I'm cooking too hot. Generally, I keep the heat on the temp gauge at about 325ish and that seems to be the magic number for food on the grill surface. I think I paid $25, or maybe $40 for originally, either at the swap meet or on CL locally. Can't remember, but it's been the best grill.

My In-Laws wouldn't listen to my advice about owning a Weber and 2 years ago went over to Costco and bought one of their $400 stainless monsters. What a nightmare to cook with. The first time I used it, the casual observer would've thought I was cooking over gasoline. The thing was just a 4 alarm fire, no matter what I did. I helped them land a new Weber Genesis E-320 Natural Gas model at xmas and it's real nice to cook on.

 

[polkanut]

From what I've seen and read about the big "stainless monsters", I'm not impressed.  I sometimes think people buy them to impress their guests, not because they're good performers. 

 

[austinado16]

IMO, there's just a huge design flaw in everything other than the Webers. The other stuff looks fantastic sitting in the store for sale, but just a joke to cook on.

For 2 years my in-laws milked their costco model. Everytime they'd use it, I'd eventually hear or be brought home a sample of the meat that was under cooked/charred on the outside. I'd actually told them after I used it the first time.....cooking for a dinner party they were hosting....that it needed to go back to Costco the following day. They didn't believe me; how could their $400 stainless and chrome monolith that took them 5hrs to assemble, be the problem? Nope it had to be me. After 2 years, I think they finally got the picture.

Believe it or not, Costco had so many problems with these grills that people were bringing them back, even after a couple years. So that's what we did. Day after Xmas were rolled it into Costco and they handed my inlaws $400 and change.

I'm going to have a good laugh if this Wolf turns out to cook poorly. May get a chance to find out today as the majority of the parts will arrive this morning, and then all I need to do is buy an LP regulator and hose, and the pipe fittings to adapt them to the 3/4" manifold that sticks out the back of this thing.

What's weird is; I've yet to find one online comment about how the Wolf's cook.

 

[rp2813]

Considering the price point, they probably didn't sell a lot of those Wolf grills.

 

We have a Front Avenue grill that's several years old.  I think it was the first stainless type that Costco ever offered.  Made by Char-Broil, and does have most of the drawbacks described above, but has lasted longer than the previous two Sunbeams.

 

The Weber with stainless grills sounds like a winner.  I may keep an eye out for one.

 

I think you could recover your investment if you decide the Wolf isn't worth keeping.  Looking forward to hearing how it performs.

 

[austinado16]

Called Wolf this morning and spoke with their tech dept. I was very nice about it, and told them upfront this was a used purchase and I wasn't after any sort of warranty, but I just wanted to give them a heads up on how bad the system is.

The guy was very nice, but I could tell there was a disconnect there between the reality of how poor the design is vs. the alleged quality and new price of the grill. It was more of a, "Well, sometimes we've seen a build up of grease in that area cause those wires to melt...." type conversation. I told that guy that wasn't the case at all, the wire is just sitting there, right next to the burner tube, with no real shielding from the flame or heat of grilling, and that the silly fiberglass cloth "sleeve" does little to protect, since the wire is touching the cloth and then just melts into the cloth.

He said they were aware the rotory ignitors could melt and that the new grills came with a metal shield to protect that plastic part. He is sending me 3 shields for free.......so that's good. Didn't expect that.

Meanwhile, started trying to remove the screws that hold the ground shields in place. Did Wolf use stainless #10 screws in their $7,600 stainless grill? Nope, just some shallow headed philips, standard grade screws. They are rusted into the stainless so bad that I had to grab the shanks with my biggest pair of vise-grips and twist them out 1/8th turn at a time, while supporting the flimsy stainless plateform each sit on, so it didn't buckle. Really, really lame.

The new parts are here, so I can start putting it back together today.

Ralph, below is a link to a super deal on a nice Weber in your area. If you've got the money, this is a fantastic model. I got the same unit for my in-laws, except it's black. Just make sure it's propane if that's what you have to use. Some of the 320's are Natural Gas.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/for/2242363382.html

 

[austinado16]

Here's another great deal on one and it's propane.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/fuo/2242000803.html

 

[austinado16]

And one that's an even better deal.

You can't go wrong with these Weber Gas models. Just inspect them for warped or broken grills, which indicates someone's been cooking or running them at a million degrees. The new grill grates are probably $75ish for cast iron.

Then pop the grates out and inspect the flavorizer bars. They are $65ish for the stainless ones that the guy on ebay sells.

Then pop out the flavorizer bars and inspect the burner tubes. They can rust out and make an uneven flame. They are probably $75ish for new stainless ones.

Needless to say, you don't want to spend $75 on a grill that's needing all 3 of these items, unless it's a $700 model.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/for/2236021862.html

 

[austinado16]

My model

Here is my exact grill, except my lid is gray.

Inexpensive, bulletproof, cooks like a dream..........but they all do.

There's no standing there babysitting the meat, no having a spray bottle handy or EVER using one. Just fire it up on high, let it run for 5min, brush off the grates, turn the burners down to MED or slightly lower, drop the meat on....

I'd pay $100 for this grill all day long.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/app/2238104859.html

 

[mattl]

I've got a 20 + year old Weber and it's still going strong.  I have replaced a few things over the years, bought the stainless bars from Weber, and picked up some cast iron grills too.  I think I replaced a burner or two over the years, but really don't recall having many problems.  I MUCH prefer the natural gas option, that's what I have and would not ever go propane if I had a choice.

 

[austinado16]

Testing.....

I've got 4 of the 6 burners up and running (waiting on parts for the other 2) with the flavorizer bars, and cast iron grates on.

I removed the 90 degree elbo, NG regulator and pipe from the back, popped on a 3/4"pipe x 3/8"flare 90 degree elbow and a $17 BBQ propane hose w/ regulator, swapped in 4 of my new propane jets, and it fired right up. A smidge of an air adjustment gave a good blue flame.

Once the grates were hot, I scrubbed them hard with a brass brush, and then smeared on a stick of shortening. They're out baking right now on low, with the lid closed. Lid outside temp, 85*F. Grate surface temp, 375*F.

Matt: talk to me about the NG preference. Is that about the convenience of never having to run out of LP in the middle of the meal, not to mention the hassle of carting tanks around to have them refilled, etc., or is there some benefit to cooking. I've only grilled using LP, and have only used my in-laws NG Weber once. The only difference I could see in using their NG version was that it didn't seem to get as hot initially and took me some finesse to sort of get my heat where I wanted it. But that could have just been because I know my own grill, but theirs was new territory for me.

 

[mattl]

It's just a convenience thing. I never have to worry about being out of gas or it cutting out in the middle of something as I've seen others have problems with.

 

It works well, though I had my cousins over doing a bit of cooking last summer and they thought it was a bit slower than they'd like.  They have never used a Weber, so that may be part of it.

 

[austinado16]

Slower.....

That's sort of my take when using my in-law's for the first time. It took much longer to get hot initially, and then longer to recover from me opening the lid and putting the steaks on, and then I was kinda standing around twiddling my thumbs waiting for side 1 to get good enough that I could turn things over.

I wasn't sure if it was the NG, or just me not being used to the different grill.

I've been snapping up propane tanks whenever I see one pop up on CL for 10 bucks. So I've got three 20 pounders now, and in Dec. scored a super nice 80 pounder!!

 

[gizmo]

I'm not big on bbqs but I love your little VW Rabbit pickup.

We had that car here in AU, badged as a VW Golf, in fact the first couple of years production (1974 and 1975 from memory) were locally assembled not far from where I lived as a kid. After 1975 VW closed its local assembly operation, sold the factory to Nissan, and became an importer of fully built cars from Germany.
We only had the hatch here, not the pickup. (which would have been called a "ute" here anyway, short for Utility.)

I remember when I was in the US in 1981 I saw these VW pickups for the first time and just loved them.

do I remember right, they were called "P'up" ???

Thanks, apologies for the near hijack, we resume normal viewing...

 

[austinado16]

The VW Pickup....

Wonder why you didn't get them as Utes? Seems like they would have sold very well.

Their world-wide name is "Caddy," but in the US, they were just called Pickups. They were hugely popular and still have a large cult following, as they are very rare now.

They were all built in Westmoreland, Pennsylvania from 1980, through the end of that plant's production in 1984. 1981 was the most prolific year......and that's what year mine is.

Most of them were built as diesels, with the 1.5L VW diesel in 1980, the 1.6L version in 1981, and then from 81-1/2 onward, the upgraded 1.6L which had stretch bolts for the cylinder head and recessed head bolt holes in the block. This was VW's final attempt to cure the headgasket failure and cracking blocks that their early engines were becoming so known for. I don't believe any were sold as turbo diesel from the factory, but it's a popular upgrade if a "real" VW 1.6L Turbo Diesel engine can be located. A common upgrade for them today is to put the later 1.9L diesel engine in them. It just transforms them as far as power and speed goes, yet still returns 45mpgUS.

Some were offered with the 1.7L fuel injected gasoline engine, and these were called "Sport Truck." Sort of a GTI version, but not with the useless close ratio 5pd transmission that the real GTI's came with. They are super rare, and get nearly the same mileage as the diesels, without all the problems and lack of power that the diesels suffer from.

Options included factory installed air conditioning and 5 speed transmission. None were produced with automatics. Many companies produced accessorie parts for them. Stockland (and others) built camper shells of various styles (mine came with a Stockland shell that cab roof height all the way back, Duraliner produced bedliners in white or black (as you see in my bed), and someone was building huge aluminum box fuel tanks that hold 26 gallons, instead of the orignal 14gal tank (mine has one of these too).

I found mine in a farmer's field back in about 1994. It was in terrible shape, and parts for it were being used all over the farm.....so it was just the body, with the rear sitting on a telephone pole that was laying under it. The rear axle had been removed and the springs taken apart. The main springs put back on the axle, and then the front bumper had been removed and was bolted to those springs. The guy was dragging that assmebly around behind his tractor to weed his fields. The bed liner was upside down in his goose/duck pen, as shelter for them. The shell was in his back yard as a dog house. He'd broken the dash completely open and removed the a/c-heater unit in order to use it in another car, and just left it laying on the ground next to the truck, driver's door and lower rocker panel were dented in, windshield broken, door wing windows broken, #2 exhaust valve head busted off and beaten into the piston until it folded over like a taco and was shoved back up into the head sideways, and the crankshaft snout keyway was all wallowed out so the timing gear had rotated out of time.

it was love at first site! I actually put it together in the field and drove it home on 3 cylinder just to spite the guy's abuse of it. He gave it to me, just to get it off his property.

Here's how it looked after I was finished restoring it:

 

[austinado16]

Cooking Test....

Did a real cooking test today with 4 premade 15% fat hamburger patties. Normally, I wouldn't cook premade hamburger, especially not 15% fat, but I knew these would be greasy and give a good test of the grill's flare-up potential.

Fired all 6 burners (all converted to LP) on high, applied another coat of shortening and let that cook in for a few minutes and then tossed the burgers on.

Not one flare up! Even when I pressed the grease out of one patty, and even tipped it up on it's side and let all the juice from the top drain off right onto one of the flavorizer bars...no flames.

So after all my complaining, this may turn out to be a keeper.

I've got a couple New Yorks to try on it tomorrow, and I'll throw on some Yams with coat of olive oil and seasoning too.

I modded the gas system, so it now has a 20lb LP tank stored inside like the factory would have done, and I T'd that into the NG line coming up the back. A ball valve on each line allows the respective regulators to be isolated, so with a quick change of just the jets, it can be NG or LP.[this post was last edited: 3/4/2011-01:09]

 

[rp2813]

Looking forward to the report after you test it with the steaks.

 

Thanks for those links to Webers in my area.  I'm not quite ready to dump the Front Avenue yet, but it's only a matter of time.  While the guarantee is for 100 years or whatever, that only gets you the replacement parts.  Due to the use of inferior fasteners, pulling the old part out is next to impossible.  It's one thing to offer such a long term warranty.  It's entirely another to build the grill in a way that allows the consumer to change out failed parts without causing more harm than good.

 

 

 

[austinado16]

Trust me, the first time you cook on a Weber, you'be thinking, "What the heck have I been using THAT THING for, all these years.

T-minus 6hrs and counting for those New Yorks!